Darkened Ice
by CaptainSwans-Tardis
Summary: This picks up right where the season finale left off- When Elsa, the Ice Queen, comes to Storybrooke seeking revenge on the Dark One for imprisoning her and kidnapping her sister, will the town stand behind Mr. Gold? And what will happen to those who stand in her way? I suck at summaries so please give it a chance.Loads of Captain Swan, Outlaw Queen, and Rumbelle promised to come!
1. Chapter 1

Three hundred years.

That was how long she'd been trapped inside the silver urn, beating the walls with her fists uselessly, hurling balls of dark-tinted ice that ricocheted around her until fading into pure white snowflakes. Three hundred years of experimenting with her power, and letting the anger and pain fester inside her. Watching the ice that she created turn from brilliantly white to a darker, menacing hue that cast longer shadows than it should have.

The space was barely big enough for her to lay spread eagled on her back, which was what she had done at first, creating snowflakes that bounced on her fingertips. Before she had discovered the idea of revenge.

Now it was all she thought about, how to kill the Dark One , who'd imprisoned her, and kill the ones he loved. She watched him through a shimmering portal of melting snow, calculating his weaknesses, finding ways to overcome his strengths. She practiced sending bolts of magic that wormed their way so cleverly into people's minds until they were nothing but flesh puppets, practiced throwing fatal stabs of ice, or filling lungs with snow, until she was sure she had surpassed the Dark One by far.

Yet his prison held fast.

At night, when plots of revenge quietly receded in her sleeping mind, she dreamt of Anna. She tossed in her sleep when her face entered her mind, even whimpered. Once, and only once, tears snaked down her cheeks as she dreamt of her sister.

She awoke with the tears frozen to her face.

She was dreaming yet again of another reunion with the sister kidnapped by the Dark One, when the urn suddenly flipped over, and jolted down hard again, almost immediately. Someone had picked up her up.

Echoes of a British voice speaking to a…Swan?...floated down to her. She let out a shaky breath and a smile, almost unsure of what to do before she sensed it. The magic in the air, the humming, the whisk of a wand and the elated laugh of a woman. The urn began to rock.

A portal. They had opened a portal.

With all her might, she threw herself to the side of the urn and pushed with all her strength and all her magic; whoever had picked her up had accidently unfastened the top. Her magic shot out of the urn and she flew into the portal, spinning faster than she ever had before.

"I'm coming, Anna, and I'll get our revenge," she murmured as she felt the portal touching down.

"Elsa's coming; I'm always coming for you."

Regina tore out of the diner before Emma could say another word, before she could even try to express how sorry she was. The door slammed behind her, and a chill snaked in from outside. Emma wasn't sure if it was the weather or Regina.

She shook her head. Regina, in short, was fire and heat. It was probably just a cold front.

She was forcefully reminded that she had been left alone in the diner, standing next to Robin and Marion, who were still hugging. Marion had already tried to kiss Robin twice, but he kept his head buried in her shoulder, Roland wrapping his tiny little arms around their legs, still murmuring "Mama, Mama, Mama!" Emma smiled and then felt terrible, then felt terrible about feeling terrible. Robin and Roland should have never lost Marion in the first place, but in saving her, she had ruined Regina's happiness. Emma sighed. Couldn't she do anything right?

Her eyes flickered over her parents, and then to the table where she'd left Killian with Henry. She touched her lips without thinking and quickly dropped them, but a smile still lingered before she remembered, yet again, what she'd done. Killian met her eyes and immediately stood up and crossed the diner to her.

"Stop it," he said, his eyes holding hers.

"Stop what?" she said, looking at Robin and then the door Regina had run out of.

"Blaming yourself! If you had left Marion to die, you'd feel miserable, perhaps more than you do now, Swan. You did the right thing. Regina and Robin will work this out."

Emma blinked and looked up at him in a way she hadn't looked at anyone in a long time- her eyes turned years younger along with her voice, and her expression screamed that she just wanted him to tell her it was going to be okay, that he could take away all her pain. It was the gaze of a hurting child. "Really?"

"Of course, love," he said, tilting his head to one side and smirking. "She does have a way of getting what she wants."

At once, Emma shook the hopeful expression off her face. "But I don't know about this time, Killian. Nobody can," she glared accusingly at the pirate in front of her.

Killian looked over at Mary Margaret and David cooing over baby Neal.

"True love always finds a way, Swan."

He hesitated, but kissed her once, quickly, but long enough that she felt the warmth and his reassurance that everything would be okay. He smiled against her lips when David let out an outraged yell.

She felt his reassurance, of course she did. She just didn't know if she believed it quite yet.

And in that exact moment of doubt, the windows froze over, the glass hardening into ice tinted a menacing black. The ice trickled from the windows and spread over the walls, making a crackling sound as what was once wood turned into something cold and dark. The ice spread and thickened heavily over the doorways, and the room hushed as the lights sputtered and the diner went black.

A woman stepped straight through the ice in the doorway, her figure pushing the mold forward before snapping clean out. Emma drew her gun, Killian and David their swords, and Snow her dagger, one hand pushing Neal behind her. Ruby snarled under her breath.

Emma didn't know what to make of it, her breath hitching in her throat and coming out in a puff in the rapidly chilling air. Why was it that whenever they defeated one Big Bad, another one came to steal the show?

The woman, the darkness hiding her face, chuckled as she flicked her wrist, and everyone in the diner slammed against the wall, tugging helplessly as tendrils of ice bound their hands and slid over their mouths, slowly moving to encompass their whole bodies.

"Oh, you all are just _adorable._ But, pray tell, where is that Dark One of yours?


	2. Chains

**Thanks for all the reviews! I hope you guys are enjoying the story!**

**Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Once Upon A Time, or I would outlaw hiatuses. **

The ice sliding over Emma's lips was a burning cold, freezing everything inside her. Her hands twitched under the layer of smooth, cold glass, but fell limp as she struggled to slip air into her lungs. Through her pounding, tilting vision, she saw Snow and Charming pinned to the wall opposite her, baby Neal sprawled on the ground, staring in wonder at the patterns of ice above him.

It was this that forced air into Emma's lungs, knowing that she could not let this woman lay a hand on her brother. Her vision shuddered once more and cleared with the first breath she took. Her hands clenched beneath the ice. Everything inside her was on fire, with rage, with indignation. She'd literally _just _defeated the last of Zelena and her magic- who did this bitch think she was?

The woman turned around from inspecting little Roland trapped in the ice to chuckle lightly, almost daintily, at Emma.

"I believe myself to be Elsa, girl." She crossed the room, her feet steady on the snow that had frozen over the floorboards. "In answer to your question, of course."

Emma blinked twice. "How-"

The woman, so blonde her hair blended in with the snowflakes jumping from her fingertips, laughed again, louder this time, almost mocking. "You're touching _my_ ice, dear. Your thoughts, _Emma,_" Elsa said.

_Are mine._

The last two words echoed in Emma's head with the same mocking tone the woman-Elsa- had.

Something clicked in her head. "Seriously? That movie came out literally six months ago."

Elsa made a mock pout face and dipped her head to the side. _Sorry to disappoint, Princess. _

Emma squeezed her eyes shut as tightly as she could. _Get out of my head, Ice Queen!_

The ice around her tightened marginally when Emma frantically summoned her magic. Every bit of it was flaming with anger, with fear. Fear of what Elsa would do. Fear of how much longer anyone in the diner would last with the dark ice freezing against their skin. Emma wielded her power and prepared to strike.

Fear also flashed through Elsa's eyes for a fraction of a second, before she whisked a hand, and Neal appeared in her arms. "Easy, there, princess. Wouldn't want to harm brother dearest, would you?"

Charming made a choked sound as he strained against his ice chains, which thickened as he thrashed more and more. Snow grit her teeth and kicked the ice, cracking it, before it froze over again as well.

Elsa tilted her head down to the child, and in the light, Emma could see something in her expression soften. She bounced the baby twice in her arms, and waved snowflakes over his face, which he laughed and grabbed out.

In the light, Emma noticed the large, ice blue eyes the woman had and the shockingly white skin that peeked out from her shimmering dress. She looked inches away from death by hypothermia, yet she seemed perfectly at ease, bouncing the baby in her arms who began to cry as the snowflakes above his head fluttered away.

Elsa shook her head, eyes glazed as if leaving a dream, and spun to look at the rest of the inhabitants of the diner turned bluish white. Her eyes landed on Killian, and her face lit up with malice. She waved her hand and the ice covering his mouth melted into a puddle that dripped down his chin.

"Bloody hell."

"Watch your mouth, pirate. I've heard of you, the infamous Captain Hook. How the Dark One despised you!"

"The feeling was mutual," the pirate growled, his lips blue but his gaze set on the baby. "Now let him go."

"Maybe I will," Elsa drawled. "If you'll only just tell me where the Dark One is."

"Rumplestiltskin!" came a shrill, defiant cry from Henry, whose lips began to freeze as he fought to say more. "His name is Rumplestilt-" The ice spilled over his face and Henry gasped for breath. Elsa's eyes never left Killian's.

"I don't know where he is, probably off on his bloody honeymoon-" the pirate began, but choked off when Elsa touched a finger to his cheek. His eyes rolled back into his head and he drooped forward, body racking with coughs. Emma screeched and writhed.

"What did you do to him, let him go!" Her magic reared again and she had to physically wrestle it down as Elsa ran a warning nail down Neal's cheek, leaving a small scratch.

The woman turned around as Killian fell free from his chains of ice, and curled into a ball on the frozen ground, hacking up packed snow.

"Maybe I will," Elsa repeated to Emma. "Where. Is. The Dark One."

Emma looked from Neal to Killian to her parents, eyes wide with terror. It took all her concentration to keep breathing, to not scream again. One tear snaked down her cheek and froze to her shackles.

"He's…" Henry's eyes widened and he tried to shake his head no as his mother began, but there was no need. She couldn't bring herself to finish, to betray Rumple like that. No one decent could.

"He's in the forest, getting married." Marion whimpered from her chains by Roland. She was tugging her way towards her child, but making no progress. "We told you, there, now _please, _free us!"

Robin turned his head as best as he could to stare in horror at his wife.

Elsa smiled with glee. She flicked her hand and an intricately carved pedestal of sparkling ice crystals rose from the ground to meet her. Pressing a taunting kiss to his forehead, her eyes never leaving Snow's, she set him down on it.

"Catch you later," she said as she spun in a circle, and before her purple cloak could whip around to hit her ankles, she was gone with a burst of fresh black snowflakes.

The atmosphere in the diner warmed, and with the hugest burst of magic Emma had ever created, the ice in the room dripped into a single puddle on the floor, and people tumbled from their shackles on the walls, groaning as they hit the ground, their teeth chattering uncontrollably. Snow and Charming stumbled their way to Neal as fast as they could, holding him tight. Emma let out a sigh of relief as she immediately went to Henry, kissing the top of his head. Elsa was gone, for the time being.

A strangled cough from behind Emma reminded her that all was not well; her entire body tensed as she spun around faster than she ever had, tearing across the diner and sliding to her knees beside the pirate curled on the floor.

What had Elsa done to him?

As he gave another cough, his lips blue not just from the cold, blackened water spewed out his mouth, and her question was answered: she had filled his lungs with her tainted snow. Emma's vision blurred with tears as Killian stilled. She shook him by the shoulders.

"Stay with me Killian, stay with me-" Her voice almost dissipated into a sob.

She ran her hand over his chest and the snow evaporated from his lungs as her palm glowed with golden power. She waited with bated breath, forehead scrunched, tears already pooling in her eyes.

His eyes creaked open, almost as blue as Elsa's. "Well, this is a disappointment, Swan," he said after the longest five seconds Emma had ever endured.

Emma let out one, joy filled laugh as she smiled with relief, laying her head on Killian's cold, leather clad chest.

"Last time I drowned, you kissed me."

**Aww! Please review, next chapter to come soon! I promise lots of Outlaw Queen and Rumbelle! **


	3. The Weather Outside is Frightful

**Thanks for all the reviews! I got a lot of stuff about evil Elsa, so I decided to humanize her a bit. Hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Once Upon A Time, or Hook and Emma would have gotten together a long time ago, and MARIAN WOULD NOT BE BACK.**

**###**

After she'd stormed out of the diner, Regina hadn't known what to do.

Of course, a few years ago, she'd have burned the diner to the ground and buried her pain deep within the carnage. But the invisible strings of her newly acquired heroism held her back from revenge, rendering her almost useless, unable to bury her pain as it spilled over. With nothing else to do, she'd gone to their spot.

_The _spot.

She sat there for what felt like hours, knees pulled to her chest after the first ten minutes, tears pouring down her cheeks after the second, in the spot where she'd kissed Robin for the first time, wondering if he'd ever come for her, and what he'd say if he did.

Goodbye? Or I love you?

Or worse, both?

It seemed so childish, that if Robin came looking for her, he'd know to come here. But maybe it was just Regina's hope that if he did know how to find her, he might still love her. And _Marian _wouldn't be with him.

Sitting in the spot and gazing up through the freezing moonlight, Regina felt her first pang of sympathy for heroes, for people who chose to do the right thing. Whatever pain they felt ate away at them, broke them down and tore at their very soul. Villains felt it too, but they could drown it in blood and revenge. Heroes had no choice but to sob.

Regina lit a pinecone on fire and threw it as hard as she could at the tree she leaned against, scooting away to watch the leaves crackle and burn against the biting air, embers cascading from the branches, the bark flaming red-gold against the black sky, all as tears poured down her cheeks. She wasn't a hero or a villain, she was both; she could drown her pain, but in doing so, she despised herself.

With a whisk of her hand, the flames sucked themselves from the tree and the area around it, sputtering as they shriveled into tiny bursts of light that popped against the ground. The spot was completely charred, blackened, any vegetation crumpled. Half of Regina wanted Robin to find it, burned to cinders; the other half wanted the spot back.

Regina turned on her heel and disappeared into purple smoke.

Not three seconds later, Robin burst through the two willow trees hiding the spot, and dropped his head into his hands when he saw that Regina was not there.

Only ashes remained.

###

The pillow beneath Belle's cheek was colder than it had ever been, and it was that that startled her awake, in Rumple's house.

Rumple's bare body was pressed close to hers, his arm draped over Belle's shoulder, but he was the only source of heat in the room. She smiled blissfully as he snored, but vaguely wished Rumple had remembered to turn on the heating.

Prying open an eye, she wondered if she could make it to the heater to switch it on without waking her brand new husband. Attempting to move an arm, she found herself so entangled in him that she thought it impossible to shift without waking him. The thought made her giggle softly, and Rumple hummed in his sleep.

She glanced across the room at the old fashioned heater as she snuggled closer to her husband, hoping he'd be enough to warm her near-frozen skin. A red blinking light coming from it yanked her eyes back for a second gaze.

The heater was on, so why was it freezing?

Belle glanced at her arm as chills snaked down her skin, and shrieked as she saw what looked like actual ice molded to a section of her skin, slowly spreading to cover her arm. She thrashed and kicked as the ice covered her mouth, jolting a sleepy Rumple awake.

"Well, isn't this an awkward situation," said a cold, sharp voice as Belle found herself pinned by ice against the headboard, the covers wrapped around her and Rumple falling away. A blonde woman in a sparkling dress appeared by the bed. "Oh, my," she said, with a genuinely disgusted and flustered expression.

Rumple fully awoke now, thrusting his hand forward to shove the woman back. She flew backwards into the wall, seemingly astounded that the man's magic had worked on her.

"But I-but I trained-" she stuttered from the floor, waving her hands frantically to fill his lungs with snow, but he parried the streak of blue with his own magic.

Rumple thrust his hand again and she fell to the ground, blood trickling from her mouth. He rushed to Belle, thrashing under the ice.

"Hold on, love, please, just-" One of his frantic bursts of magic suddenly and unexpectedly worked, and Belle fell from the wall, shaking harder than she ever had, her lips so blue they bordered on purple. Rumple let out a sigh of relief and crushed her to his chest as she fainted, but still breathed steadily.

He tucked her under the covers and strode over to the blonde woman, him still naked as a newborn child. He crouched in front of her and waved a hand over her head, taking great care in fastening bindings he'd shaped from the darkness and pulled straight out of the air around her wrists. When she jolted awake, Rumple smiled.

She struggled against the bounds, freezing them solid over and over until she slumped against the wall, baring her teeth. "Congratulations, you've got me. Now get it over with and kill me."

Rumple laughed through his teeth, and with a flick of his head pushed the hair out of his eyes. "Oh, dearie, I'm not going to kill you. For one thing, I don't even know who you are."

She looked almost insulted. "Elsa. You imprisoned me in an urn for three hundred years for being _powerful_, and you kidnapped my sister. You deserve to die, monster." She spat ice in his face, which he cradled with interest in his hands.

"Ah, yes, I remember you. Elsa, the ice queen. Your powers have improved, little one, but you are nowhere near defeating me."

Every part of her being seemed to sag, her eyes whizzing about confusedly. After a long moment, her voice no longer as cold or hard, she asked, "What did you do with my sister?" When he did not reply, she said softly, "I loved her."

Rumple strained his memory.

"The redheaded girl?"

Elsa stared into his eyes with pure disgust, but nodded.

"I believe I sent her to another land from your own, a neighboring kingdom of Snow White and Prince Charming's. The royal family there was in dire need of an heir. I provided one."

Elsa seemed to deflate even more, the anger flaring half heartedly in her eyes. "So I'm- I'm never going to see her again?"

"No."

Rumple had imprisoned Elsa with the darkest of his magic, so when she let out a shout of despair, he rolled his eyes slightly and sat back as she struck her ice at the bonds uselessly again, but something was different. Her ice, once blackened, for a short second, turned blinding white in her selfless despair, and with another pain-filled scream and a burst of white she was gone, the bindings falling soundlessly to the ground. Rumple cursed.

His phone rang.

"Hello?" he said, his tone sharp, horrified at himself for letting her slip away.

Emma's panicked voice echoed through the phone. "Gold? We've got some crazy powerful chick running around town hell bent on freezing you to death."

Rumple rolled his eyes. "Yes, I know, she just paid me a little visit. Your warning's a bit late."

"This connection was a miracle! The storm wouldn't let us out of the diner, and phones weren't working until about two seconds ago!"

He glanced outside. Sure enough, as Miss Swan would put it, it was storming like a bitch. Dark snowflakes covered the window in a grimy paste, and the temperature was dropping lower and lower.

"No need to worry, Miss Swan, she's not as powerful as she believes herself to be. Her only danger is her vicious fixation on vengeance," Rumple said, touching the window pane lightly.

" Are you kidding me? She incapacitated the whole diner at once and- and- look outside, that looks powerful to me!" Emma spluttered.

"Think, Miss Swan. Was it her power that incapacitated you, or her threats to a hostage she most likely took? You are much more powerful than her in actuality."

Emma made a noise of relief over the phone. "So we just don't let her take anyone to hold over us and-"

"We're golden. Goodnight, Miss Swan, and do not let anyone leave that diner. Cast a protection spell."

He hung up before she could tell him that Regina and Robin were already gone.

###

_**Is **_**Anna alive? Will Elsa find her?**

**Please review!**


	4. From Anna To Eilonwy

**Just to clear things up, this chapter follows Anna/ the royal family that took her in. Thank you, beautiful wonderful people who reviewed. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon A Time, or any Frozen or Black Cauldron characters I'm borrowing. (Distant crying)**

**###**

_**Just after Elsa was first imprisoned in the urn, far away in the kingdom of Llyr …**_

The queen clutched her deflated stomach and her husband's taut arm as she hobbled to the throne. Her eyes were hard and empty, lacking warmth; yet they were not cold either. It was as if something had died inside her, and her husband's eyes mirrored her own. They were broken, and one glance was enough to tell.

Before the queen could collapse onto the throne she had once sat upon with a warm and gracious smile, wind filled the air around the couple, and a scaly imp appeared on the chair just as the queen stumbled and fell at the foot of the throne. Her husband mechanically picked her up, drawing back in muted surprise.

The king drew his sword and pointed it against the creature's throat. "Who are you, and what business do you have in the kingdom of Llyr?"

It cackled gleefully at the blade and sprawled deeper into the ornate throne. "Why, have you not heard of me?" He flourished his hands, one shooting upwards and one meeting the other's elbow, his fingers curled dramatically. "I am the Dark One, of course," He leaned forward, with exaggerated hand gestures that seemed childish but foreboding all the same. "And I know what you seek."

He drew out the last word, leaning forward to touch the queen's belly. "Another miscarriage, my dear Queen Angharad? The…third one, I presume?"

The king shoved the sword at the Dark One, meaning to spear him to the throne, but he only giggled and reappeared behind the king, who struggled to remove the sword from the twisted fronds of gold. "Manners, Geraint," he cackled.

The queen spun. "Are you offering us a child, imp?"

The man held a hand to his heart in mock offense, mouth dropped wide open.

Geraint spun as well, abandoning his sword in the throne. "Answer the question!" His chest heaved with anger as the queen held him back with one hand, waiting for the imp to finally speak.

"Why, yes, it so happens I am."

Angharad, a clever woman, watched his eyes closely. "For what price?"

The Dark Once smiled slowly. "You _have _heard of me."

She glanced down once. "Stories, as a child. I never believed them…"

The man batted the wistful remark away like a wayward fly. "What I am offering is a woman, spun back in time to her childhood, with no memory of her life before. Completely free for you to, eh…how do you say…_perfect._"

The couple nodded frantically. The queen's eyes softened fractionally.

"My price is this: I know this is a kingdom where magic is _outlawed_, a quite stupid decision, if you ask me- but this child I will give you- I will imbue her with magic."

Angharad gasped; Geraint growled through his teeth.

The Dark One raised a filthy brow. "Do you want a child or not?"

The queen, still holding a hand to her sagging stomach, looked up, breath whizzing out of her lips as she realized something.

"Giving the child magic benefits you not. Why imbue her?"

The imp laughed manically. "That is, in my _humble_ opinion, the best part." He strode around the king and grazed his fingers on the gold throne. "Tell her to keep the magic in, all her life. To conceal it. And on her thirteenth birthday, send her away to the abandoned Black Castle in the woods. I will…_acquire _her there. With her and her dear sister combined…That power would be terrorizing… and mine…"

"But she will never become an heir!" The king boomed.

The Dark One rolled his eyes. "Marry her off before thirteen years of age. Then, when she…vanishes, her reluctant spouse will take the throne."

The king and queen, warmth broken, wanting only an heir but not a child, looked into the demon's eyes. They stood stiffly apart from each other, even their love for each other damaged in the miscarriage. Angharad looked at Geraint, and then at the imp.

"We accept."

The Dark Once cackled yet again. "Sign here, dearies," he shouted, flourishing his hands again and thrusting a contract into their arms.

"Come in, Anna," he shouted into the hallway as the monarchs hurried to sign.

In walked a nervous, gagged girl of maybe sixteen, with a splatter of freckles across her face, and red hair tied in two smooth braids. Her large eyes were beautiful, but clouded with fear; as the imp ripped the gag off her face, she began to screech a name- Elsa- but her voice faded as a swirling mass of dark clouds surrounded her.

Behind the Dark One, the queen looked up from signing her name on the yellowed contract, and gazed in wonder as Anna began to shrink, her silhouette in the clouds thinning and shortening, the magic around her crackling with power. The room pulsed with light as the clouds began to dissipate into the air, and when they cleared, all that was left was a bundle of cloth wrapped around a bawling baby, two tufts of red hair poking out on her pale head.

The Dark One scooped her up, touched two glowing fingers to her forehead to grant her magic and wipe her memories, and handed her to the queen.

"Her name was Anna in her past life," he said, tilting his head to see what the couple would make of this information.

"That may be true," said the queen, a cold, sickening smile slowly growing on her face. "But as of today, she is Princess Eilonwy of Llyr."

###

**Since I'm pretty sure most of you don't know who Princess Eilonwy is, she was one of the main characters in a 1985 Disney movie that totally flopped for being too dark. **

**Please review!**


	5. Escape

**Hey guys! I am so sorry this chapter took so long, I was on a very long road trip with my family and I have not had wifi connection since the beginning of June. (Well, unless you count hotels we briefly stayed the night at) The horror! Anyways, please keep reviewing, and don't be afraid to post some constructive criticism if you feel there's something in the writing that could be improved. Thanks!**

Killian Jones had never actually seen someone pace.

Yes, he'd read about it constantly in books, and even paced himself when he was under extreme stress, but never before had he actually seen it.

Yet here it was, in the shape of a willowy blonde with fingers clenched tight, forehead creased, and she had been pacing in the same spot for what felt like hours.

"Swan-" he tried again.

"Don't!" she snapped back, holding up one hand long enough for Killian to see where her long nails had bitten into her palms.

Thoroughly fed up with the slamming sound of her feet against the wood floor, he plucked her hand from the air and smoothed it out between his palms, gingerly inspecting the crescent moons her nails had left in her pale skin. Some were a bloated, angry red, but still others had already started leaking scarlet blood.

"Jesus, Swan, you'll kill yourself _before_ we all freeze to death if you keep this up," he said with a cheeky grin, but even before she whipped around to face him he knew it was the wrong thing to say.

Her eyes, once filled with pent-up anger and frustration, melted into that of fear and paranoia. "You think we're going to freeze?" she said, yanking her hand from Killian's grasp.

Killian blanched as he realized what the jest meant to her. " No, love, I was trying to make a joke-"

"Hell of a joke, Killian!" she shouted at him, but as soon as the words were out, her shoulders sagged inwards, and her forehead somehow, impossibly, creased tighter. " If _we're _cold in here, Regina and Robin must be-"

"Fine," said a gruff voice from behind Emma. Two large hands fell onto Emma's shoulders, and she turned to direct her gaze into her father's smiling face. "Do you honestly think Regina would stay out there in the cold when with a flick of her hand, she can transport herself home?"

Emma bit her lip so hard she tasted blood. "No, but Robin- he went out to look for her."

David's hands clenched. "What?"he said in pure shock, rushing back into the middle of the room to look for Robin.

Emma caught up to him in three long strides, tugging on her father's sleeve as Killian trailed after her as well. "Dad, I watched him leave: I tried to stop him but he was already out the door when I got there- I thought other people saw him!" She shivered to remember his conflicted, pale face, and his slim fingers prying a spot of the ice open wide enough for him to slip through amidst the confusion and disarray.

"I saw him," came a slightly hollow voice from David's right. There stood a skinny woman with a pile of tangled brown curls rippling down her back, her corset and dress screamingly out of place in the casual diner.

"Marian," Emma said, her eyes flicking downwards and up again. "I'm sorry-I should have gotten there faster to stop him-"

She waved a hand, but the distrusting fire in her eyes remained. "Okay, guys,'" she said in a hard tone as Mary Margaret walked up with a pink-cheeked Neal in her arms. "This so-called Savior kidnaps me to bring me to the future, where I finally find my husband again, and he rushes into a deadly ice storm to pursue the _Evil Queen_? Someone explain this to me, because I do _not_ understand."

Killian shifted around in his boots and suddenly became very interested with the tip of his silver hook.

Emma crossed her arms and looked down.

David pressed his lips together and turned to his wife, only to find her attention wholeheartedly and uncomfortably fixed on Neal.

Marian's gaze skipped between each of them, watching their cheeks turn slightly pinker than what the cold had already rendered them, and somewhere in between David and Mary Margaret, she gasped.

"No," she whispered. "No, no, no."

"Surprise?" Killian tried.

"The _Evil Queen_? The one that was going to have me executed? She and him-?" Marian wheezed, clapping a hand over mouth as words failed her.

"Dad, he'll freeze out there. If Regina doesn't want to be found…he won't find her." Emma looked up at him, something blazing in her eyes. "Let me go after him before Elsa does. Gold told me that she isn't as powerful as she'd like us to believe- her power's now kind of reliant on hostages. If she gets Robin-"

Marian's breath hitched in her throat.

"We're done for."

David and Killian shook their heads at the same time, but Emma was already pushing her slim fingers into the crevice between the cracked, shimmering, icy blue barrier to widen the space Robin had used to leave. The ice gave way slightly, creaking loudly and splintering into thousands of fuzzy cracks, spindling around the edges of the barrier. David reached for Emma's arm and yanked her back.

"Emma. We have to stick together." His voice was calm but underneath shook a myriad of emotion unspent. Mary Margaret laid a hand on Emma's arm as well, shaking her head when the blonde looked back at the space between the ice.

"I'm sorry," she said, her green eyes briefly shuddering with glassy tears, before a gold light pulsed through her arm, singing the hands of both her parents. They yanked their hands away from Emma's glowing, steaming skin, yelping, but by the time they reached for her again, she was already slipping through the door.

Killian latched onto her arm, grimacing in pain as the gold light burned his skin, but he refused to let go. "Swan, listen to me, stop-"

She pulsed again, flooding the room with hissing yellow light, spitting out tendrils of heat. Killian felt the ground leave his feet as he tumbled away from his Swan- he immediately scrambled to his feet, but she had already skirted past the ice.

"Swan, I can't let you do this!" he cried, seeing her shadowy form already outside through the pane of ice. The cold glass twisted her form and shadowed her face, but Killian could clearly see Emma raising her hand, and the ice beginning to move to cover the hole from which she had left. He dived, sliding on the still icy ground near the door, propelling himself through the rapidly shrinking tunnel Emma had left through.

The ice snapped shut with a loud creak just as Killian skidded to a stop- still on his stomach- barely out of the diner. He opened his eyes to see Emma looking down at him, frustration and anger and hints of relief etched on her face.

"At least not alone," Killian finished.

**I know, I know, I'm a total cheeseball. **

**Please tell me how much this sucked or didn't suck in the reviews! I need them like air!**

**What do you guys think about a TLK coming up in a few chapters? Yea or nay?**


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